1568
: Mary Queen of Scots is arrested.]] Year 1568 was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. Events of 1568 * Russo-Ottoman War in Astrakhan * March 23 - Peace of Longjumeau ends the Second War of Religion in France. Again Catherine de' Medici and Charles IX make substantial concessions to the Huguenots. * May 2 - Mary Queen of Scots escapes from Loch Leven Castle. * May 13 - Battle of Langside: the forces of Mary Queen of Scots are defeated by a confederacy of Scottish Protestants under James Stewart, her half-brother. * May 16 - Mary Queen of Scots flees to England. * May 19 - Queen Elizabeth I of England arrests Mary Queen of Scots. * May 23 - Battle of Heiligerlee - Troops under Louis of Nassau, brother of William I of Orange, defeat a smaller loyalist force under the Duke of Arenberg in an attempt to invade the Northern Netherlands. * July 21 - Battle of Jemmingen - The main Spanish army of the Duke of Alva utterly defeats Louis of Nassau's invading army in the Northeastern Netherlands. * August 18 - Beginning of the Third War of Religion in France after an unsuccessful attempt by the Royalists to capture Condé and Coligny, the Huguenot leaders. (The Relief of Leiden).]] * September 29 - The Swedish king Eric XIV is dethroned and succeeded by his half-brother John III. * October 5 - William of Orange invades the Southeastern Netherlands. * October 20 - Battle of Jodoigne. Spanish forces under the Duke of Alva destroy Orange's rearguard. Orange abandons his offensive. Undated * The Azuchi-Momoyama period begins in Japan. * The Eighty Years' War begins. * Peace of Adrianople: The Ottomans agree to pay tribute to the Habsburgs. * Akbar the Great of the Mughal Empire besieges and captures the massive Chittorgarh Fort in northern India. Births * February 11 - Honoré d'Urfé, French writer (d. 1625) * March 9 - Aloysius Gonzaga, Italian Jesuit and saint (died 1591) * April - Pope Urban VIII (died 1644) * September 3 - Adriano Banchieri, Italian composer (died 1634) *September 5 - Tommaso Campanella, Italian theologian and poet (d. 1639) *''date unknown'' **Nikolaus Ager, French botanist (died 1634) **John Welsh of Ayr, Scottish Presbyterian leader **Barnabe Barnes, English poet (died 1609) **Teodosio II (died 1630) **Luisa Carvajal y Mendoza, Spanish religious leader (died 1614) **Edward Chichester (died 1648) **Marino Ghetaldi, Ragusan scientist (died 1626) **Nakagawa Hidemasa, Japanese military leader (died 1592) **Fernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxochitl, Mexican historian (d. 1648) **Gervase Markham, English poet and writer (died 1637) **Edward Somerset (died 1628) **Henry Wotton, English author and diplomat (died 1639) **Wei Zhongxian, Grand Secretary of China (died 1627) : See also 1568 births. Deaths * January 15 - Catherine Carey, Chief Lady of the Bedchamber to Elizabeth I of England (born c1526) * January 20 - Myles Coverdale, English Bible translator (born c1488) * January 21 - Amato Lusitano, Portuguese physician (born 1511) *January 26 - Lady Catherine Grey, Countess of Hertford (born 1539) * March 20 - Duke Albert of Prussia (born 1490) *May 23 - Jean de Ligne (born 1528) *June 3 - Andrés de Urdaneta, Spanish Friar (born 1498) * June 5 **Lamoral, Flemish statesman (born 1522) **Philip de Montmorency Born c1524 * July 7 - William Turner, British ornithologist and botanist (born 1508) * July 24 - Don Carlos of Spain, son of Philip II of Spain (born 1545) * August 23 - Thomas Wharton (born 1495) * September 22 - Jöran Persson, Swedish politician (born c. 1530) (executed) * October 3 - Elizabeth of Valois, Queen of Philip II of Spain (born 1545) * October 14 - Jacques Arcadelt, Flemish composer (born 1504) * October 28 - Ashikaga Yoshihide, Japanese shogun (born 1538) * December 23 - Roger Ascham, tutor of Elizabeth I of England (born 1515) * December 31 - Shimazu Tadayoshi, Japanese warlord (born 1493) *''date unknown'' **Henry, Dutch reformer (born 1531) **Henry Sutton Dudley, English soldier and sailor (born 1517) **Gherman, archbishop of Kazan and later Metropolitan of Moscow **Aben Humeya, last independent king of Granada (born 1520) **Antoine Héroet, French poet **Garcia de Orta, Portuguese Jewish physician (born 1501) **Dirk Philips, early Anabaptist writer and theologian **Yan Song, Chinese prime minister (born 1481) : See also 1568 deaths.